A Branford company that dumped polluted water into the Branford River, killing hundreds of blue crabs, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Hartford to breaking environmental laws. Atlantic Wire Co. LLC pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the federal Clean Water Act and one count of submitting false statements to the state Department of Environmental Protection, according to a press release from the U.S. attorney's office. The release doesn't name the company's owners or say who pleaded.

By EDMUND H. MAHONY, emahony@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, December 5, 2013

Personal care product manufacturer Unilever pleaded guilty Thursday to two felony environmental violations and agreed to make $4.5 million in payments for failure to make timely reports of illegal discharges of industrial waste water at its plant in Clinton. Federal environmental officials, investigators and prosecutors have said that they believe, on a weekly basis for as long as two years, Unilever intentionally bypassed its waste water treatment system and discharged partially treated waste water directly into the Clinton storm water drainage system.

A former executive of the Atlantic Wire Co. of Branford pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court for failing to report two toxic discharges into the Branford River. The company, which went bankrupt and closed in September 2008, had a history of environmental violations and was ordered to pay a $1.5 million fine last year. But Robert Meyer, 55, the former vice president of finance for the firm, is the only company official indicted. After a fisherman reported seeing hundreds of dead blue crabs around Atlantic Wire Co.'s wastewater pipe in the Branford River in May 2007, federal regulators investigated.

When state Sen. George L. "Doc"' Gunther of Stratford retired in 2006, he'd been at the Capitol for so long that the jokes were inevitable — he planted the Charter Oak, he should be named the state fossil, etc. But underlying the kidding was a rich vein of respect. Mr. Gunther had served in the Senate for 40 years, making him the longest-serving legislator in state history. Mr. Gunther, who died Sunday at 92, achieved his unmatched legislative longevity by being an independent thinker who kept in touch with his district, and by being colorful, funny, curmudgeonly and unpredictable.

Algonquin Power's permit to release chemicals under the federal Clean Water Act expired in 2005. The company was identified by its former name, Ahlstrom Windsor Locks Cogeneration, in a graphic on Page A7 Sunday.

A former Plantsville man who worked at the Fujicolor photo processing plant in New Britain was sentenced to one year's probation for falsifying reports required under federal environmental standards. Alan McGlory, 58, of New Jersey, formerly of the section of Southington, was sentenced Sept. 14. He also was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine. He faced up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. "This office takes environmental crimes very seriously," U.S. Attorney Kevin J. O'Connor said in a written statement.

A former manufacturing executive was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in New Haven on charges of violating the Clean Water Act and conspiring to violate the act. The indictment says Robert H. Hopkins of North Scituate, R.I., the former vice president of manufacturing at Spirol International Corp., tampered with samples of wastewater discharged into the Five Mile River in Killingly. Hopkins falsely told the state Department of Environmental Protection that the analysis of the samples was representative of what the company was discharging into the river from March 1989 to September 1990, the indictment says

Polluters have designed their dream bill in the dirty-water act that the House is expected to vote on today. The bill written mostly by lobbyists and lawyers representing agribusiness and other corporate interests would gut the Clean Water Act of 1972, which is up for reauthorization this year. The proposal being pushed by the House Republican majority would loosen federal limits on pollutants that may be dumped in rivers, lakes and coastal waters. It would let each state decide whether cleaning up water was worth the cost and trouble, as if rivers and lakes recognize state boundaries.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has fined two companies working on projects at the Navy's submarine base for failing to follow storm-water rules for contractors. Pettini Contracting Corp. from Mystic and M.A. Mortenson Co. from Minneapolis were fined for failing to implement and maintain storm-water controls, to conduct or document storm-water inspections or to update or amend their storm-water pollution control plan. The fine totaled $17,000 for the two companies, though the EPA had the ability to levy a much higher fine under the Clean Water Act. The project the contractors have been working on is the submarine escape trainer -- a tower that can be filled with water for teaching submariners how to get out of disabled subs and ascend to the surface.

The local bill for the federal Clean Water Act is about due. At a special town meeting Thursday night, a group of residents -- most of them town officials -- approved borrowing up to $500,000 to build a water pumping facility and to replace a 100-year-old water main on High Street. New Hartford is in the process of severing its link with raw surface water supplied by the Metropolitan District Commission. By pumping water from a deep well field, the town will be complying with standards set by the Clean Water Act, First Selectman Bruce Gresczyk said.

The Amston Lake District in Hebron and Lebanon is an oasis on the eastern edge of Greater Hartford. But on the Lebanon side of this unpretentious community of more than 700 year-round homes and summer cottages encircling the 188-acre lake, a severe case of water contamination has broken the calm. Raw sewage is seeping from failing septic systems - a problem, like those along sections of Connecticut's shoreline, that has been building for decades. The outbreak in Lebanon has exposed the town to possible legal sanctions, strained relations between lake district residents and town hall and illuminated the stark differences in the way that Lebanon and Hebron reacted to danger signs in the late 1980s.

The U.S. Army Reserve is seeking a federal permit to fill wetlands at Cucia Park as it tries to build a military training center on the site of the 42-acre park on Smith Street. The Army is seeking to build a three-story, 164,007-square-foot facility on 17 acres of the park, but construction can't begin until the wetlands permit is secured. The federal Clean Water Act, which requires that construction plans minimize any impact on wetlands, dictates that the Army must get the federal permit.

A former executive of the Atlantic Wire Co. of Branford pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court for failing to report two toxic discharges into the Branford River. The company, which went bankrupt and closed in September 2008, had a history of environmental violations and was ordered to pay a $1.5 million fine last year. But Robert Meyer, 55, the former vice president of finance for the firm, is the only company official indicted. After a fisherman reported seeing hundreds of dead blue crabs around Atlantic Wire Co.'s wastewater pipe in the Branford River in May 2007, federal regulators investigated.

The state has tapped a Metropolitan District Commission project designed to keep sewage from flowing into basements and waterways in Hartford's North End to receive most of the $48.5 million in federal stimulus money earmarked for Clean Water Act work in Connecticut. State officials explained the decision to fund the sewer and storm-water separation project by saying that it's easier to track job retention and creation by designating one major stimulus project. The MDC told The Courant earlier this month that two of the five phases of the work on the aging, flood-prone sewer system would create 54 jobs, based on estimates from the subcontractor.

The criminal case against a shoreline wire manufacturing company that polluted the Branford River came to a conclusion Monday, but state and federal officials are still investigating individuals associated with the former Atlantic Wire Co. who may have played a role in the toxic dumping. Prosecutor Christopher W. Schmeisser said the U.S. attorney's office is "assessing whether there are particular actors" responsible for dumping contaminated wastewater into the river during the summer of 2007, causing the death of hundreds of blue crabs.

By EDMUND H. MAHONY, emahony@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, December 5, 2013

Personal care product manufacturer Unilever pleaded guilty Thursday to two felony environmental violations and agreed to make $4.5 million in payments for failure to make timely reports of illegal discharges of industrial waste water at its plant in Clinton. Federal environmental officials, investigators and prosecutors have said that they believe, on a weekly basis for as long as two years, Unilever intentionally bypassed its waste water treatment system and discharged partially treated waste water directly into the Clinton storm water drainage system.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it expects to issue a ruling in August about a route for a new Route 6 expressway in eastern Connecticut. Corps officials said Thursday the decision will follow a public hearing and public comment period in late spring and early summer. Although Connecticut has submitted a permit application for its preferred route, which would take the highway entirely north of the Hop River, the Corps will be looking at several options to determine the least environmentally damaging.

Since the Atlantic Wire Co. was caught dumping polluted water into the Branford River in 2007, chemicals and equipment used to make the steel wire and processed rod at the now-closed facility have been properly disposed of, court records say. And contaminants found on hard surfaces around storage tanks and a former wastewater treatment system were cleaned, according to Paul W. Shaw, Atlantic Wire's attorney. But on Friday, U.S. District Judge Christopher F. Droney wanted to know more about the environmental cleanup at the site before he would agree to sentence Atlantic Wire to pay $1.5 million - a fine that Droney would not be able to impose because the company is bankrupt.

Atlantic Wire Co. repeatedly and recklessly poisoned the Branford River, and the company's successful prosecution is a good thing. But it's a stretch to say this case puts polluters on notice that the state will rigorously enforce laws and regulations protecting Connecticut's waterways. Atlantic, now bankrupt, made steel wire and processed rod at its facility using sulfuric and hydrochloric acid and highly alkaline materials. It had a discharge pipe to the Branford River about 300 feet away and a terrible record for illegal dumping.